Sustainability
Your sustainable pack needs a disposal sentence
By Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
If a customer cannot tell what goes in which bin, the environmental story stops before the action it depends on.
A takeaway pack says “better for the planet”. The customer finishes lunch, turns it over, and still cannot work out what to do with the lid, lining and food-stained base.
I would fix that moment before making the slogan larger.
Environmental communication often concentrates on what the producer changed. The customer may need a more practical answer: what am I supposed to do with this particular object, here?
The UK Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code guidance stresses clarity about what a claim covers and any conditions it depends on. It also warns that claims can mislead through their overall presentation. I take a straightforward marketing lesson from that: an attractive impression cannot substitute for an understandable instruction.
Explain the components customers actually hold
For a proposed pack, I would list its separate parts and verify the relevant disposal route in each market. The final instruction must reflect the materials and available collection arrangements. A claim that works in one place should not be copied globally without checking those conditions.
If components need separating, show the separation. If a claim applies only to the outer sleeve, say so. If a particular processing facility is required, do not let a generic green symbol imply that the customer can use an ordinary household route instead.
This is also a design problem. A pack that requires a complicated paragraph about separation may be physically difficult to handle. That is a reason to revisit the construction, not simply to shrink the font.
Test the instruction with an empty pack
My proposed test is deliberately unglamorous. Give people the used packaging and ask what they would do next. Let them demonstrate without help. Record whether they identify the components, understand the instruction and can perform the required action.
A sustainability-rating question would miss much of this. A customer can think a pack looks responsible while disposing of it in a way that defeats the intended route. The business needs to know which misunderstanding its design creates.
I would keep the immediate instruction on the pack and use a web page for the supporting explanation. The page can show evidence and market-specific detail. It should not be necessary to scan a code merely to discover that the reassuring claim applies to only one small component.
The copy I want to approve is the sentence a customer can act on after lunch. Writing that sentence forces the business to be precise about its environmental promise. If it cannot be written accurately and simply, there is still work to do on the offer itself.
Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.